"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance." ~ Fanny Fern, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved

Filoli Gardens- I think this is just outside the mens room.
History for those who like it:
After the 1906 earthquake, many wealthy San Francisco families relocated to the Peninsula and built large estates. A
number of these families made their fotunes in the railroad, mining, banking, and mercantile boom of America’s Gilded Age. Filoli is the last of these estates remaining on all of its original 654 acres. Built by Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn II, who lived here between 1919 and 1936, the estate was sold to Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth in 1937. In 1975, Mrs. Roth donated the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Today the property is open to the public from February through October with the help of more than 1,000 volunteers.

The Bourns were owners of the Empire Gold Mine, the largest hard-rock mining operation in California (now the Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley) as well as the Spring Valley Water Comnpany and its Crystal Springs Reservoir, now owned by the San Francisco Water Dept.
Mr Bourn selected this site on the south end of Crystal Springs Lake because it reminded him of Muckross, the Irish estate he bought for his daughter Maud as a wedding present in 1910. He created the name Filoli by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”
~ National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm@19mm, f8, 1/60s, ISO 200, Aperture Priority